First of all I never knew there's such a thing as a "Protestant vs. Catholic" issue until I learned about it sometime after this Lent. It was also around that time when I became renewed and stopped being lukewarm in the Catholic faith. Oh the things I discover I tell you. To this day I keep learning more and more.
And one of those things I learned is about this certain person who saw the Virgin Mary herself. Even his children saw her! Oh wow, and this was in 1947! I've never even heard of this story until now.
How I found out about an amazing conversion story
Actually I had a fever the other day, no thanks to sudden sore throat or maybe flu. Yesterday I was feeling a bit better, thank you Lord, so much better that I decided to go online and attend mass.
This was how I realized Quiapo Church holds mass almost every hour everyday! 😱 They do a live broadcast in their YouTube and Facebook channel everyday at certain hours. I am just amazed by that. Haha. (It is the home of the miraculous life-sized statue of the Black Nazarene. Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth!)
From there I went to check the Baclaran Church channel and later on saw a video. It was uploaded by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cubao channel. I learned a bit of the the history of Santo Domingo Parish in Quezon City from it. Piqued by curiosity I searched if that church had a YT channel and found the La Naval de Manila channel. Here's Part 1 of The Story of Our Lady of the Rosary La Naval Manila. Playlist here.
Watching each episode, I eventually learned of the attempt of the Dutch to conquer The Philippines. Apparently Spain and the Netherlands were at war at the time, and yes it was a Protestants vs. Catholics kinda war too. Tsk tsk. I never knew about such a thing until I checked more about the history of the latter country and mine.
Bah, Europeans and their world conquest, always dragging in the little people into their fights. Ugh. Or them monarchs were just greedy people, always wanting to be rich, taking gold and silver in whatever country they conquer, funding more wars, etc.
And then there's the Netherlands... It wanted to be free of their Spanish conquerors thus even used Calvinism (Protestant religion) to drive the point home. (That's also what they tried to do for the people in Mindanao when they came to increase the rebellion against Spain in that area.)
The Dutch trading and naval army eventually moved to block/intercept Spanish trading and such. Pilfering at sea they even reached the Philippines! And then they partnered with the English and even stole from the Chinese trade merchants when they can!
During the 17th century the Dutch colonists supposedly had more capitalist motives than religious ones unlike their conquerors. And they even became Catholic haters and executors, most likely in retaliation for being conquered and then persecuted for their religious heresy.
Anyway after reading about the history of Netherlands I went back to watching the La Naval videos. I finished the entire playlist and thought that was it for me. But wait there's more! 😂 I eventually tried to search for a documentary by EWTN on Mama Mary being the mother of the Philippines. Nope it isn't on YouTube but I saw a suggested video instead!
Who wouldn't be curious with such titles huh? 😂 We all love gory and horror stories but boy I never knew about this incident. So then I did a quick search... That's how I started watching or listening and reading about the wonderful conversion story of a blasphemous man. God truly moves in mysterious ways. 🙏
TL;DR version of the Protestant who converted to Catholicism source
Bruno Cornacchiola was a poor Roman boy, nobody seemed to love him. Born to abusive parents he ran away from home. He didn't have a good life as a kid and was always hungry. Ended up being found by a woman who mentioned the word pizza. Voila! Next thing he knew he was having regular Catholic catechism and was being fed everyday.
Of course eventually this led to his confirmation and first communion. After that he went home and tried to spread what he learned. Unfortunately as soon as he got there he got the same abusive treatment as before.
Back to his old broken ways he then lived. He also got married, left his wife and got into the army to fight in the Spanish Civil War. From there he came into contact with a Protestant who told him all sorts of lies about Catholicism. That man told him the Pope is the reason there's evil in the world. And because of everything he was told, anger further grew in his heart. Bruno then decided to assassinate the Pope and hate Catholics and their ways. He also became a Seventh Day Adventist preacher.
Bruno was adulterous and abusive to his wife who was a devout Catholic. With hate in his heart, he did all sorts of bad things to other Catholics he encountered. He even vandalized a statue of Mama Mary and destroyed all Catholic images/representations in his home.
One day since he returned from the war, he told his wife to convert and become a Protestant but she had one condition: He should go to confession and do 9 First Friday novena to the Sacred Heart. All this he did and thought nothing of it. And so she converted.
Fast forward to April 12, 1947, he took his children near Tre Fontane while he composed a speech against the Virgin Mary. While the kids were playing they asked him to help look for a ball they were playing with. He noticed his youngest child was missing but eventually found him in a small cave, kneeling and saying "beautiful lady" repeatedly. Eventually the two kids followed suit. Bruno tried to snap them out of it and lift them by force but the children seemed heavy and glued to the spot.
This was when he became afraid and cried out to God. Then everything became dark for him, Mother Mary touched his eyes as if to remove something and then he clearly saw the illuminated Virgin Mary. He then fell to his knees and she said,
“I am the one found in the divine Trinity. I am the Virgin of the Revelation. You have persecuted me. Enough! Enter into the sheepfold, the judgment of God is holy, the nine Fridays you made before entering into the sheepfold of lies are the ones that have saved you. Obey the authority of the Holy Father.” (source)
She said more but that's pretty much how a blasphemous hater of Mama Mary and Catholicism converted him herself. Wow right? From then on he repented and changed his abusive and evil ways. He and his family officially became Catholics weeks later. Bruno even became a catechist/evangelizer and continued spreading the Word, and everything about the religion Jesus started, until his death in 2001.
Now What?
Well for me I'm just happy to share the story I never knew before. It's quite interesting if you read more articles and such about it.
Basically this simple story is about repentance and for all to end our sinful ways and return to God. Our Lady of Revelation also promised the soil where she appeared would be miraculous as proof of their encounter, which indeed happened. Now it is a place of many conversions and healing.
She calls us to pray a lot including the rosary daily for more conversions, among other things. Actually it is not the first time Mama Mary appeared to people asking us to repent and change our evil ways. Even Jesus said the same thing.
With all the warnings we've been receiving over the many centuries, it's up to all of us now. We can all choose to heed her call and thus avoid hell or continue ignoring them and insist on doing and spreading our sinful ways. Choose wisely.
Finally, now is the best time to check on what Jesus said in Luke 13:23-28. 😉 Feel free to also share your thoughts in the comments!
XOXO,
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Lead image from Unsplash, others from Pixabay.
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